The Ministry of Defense promised to restore the monuments dismantled in other countries

Soviet military monuments dismantled in other countries will be restored in Russia, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Dmitry Bulgakov told reporters.

“At one of the meetings with the Minister of Defense, it was decided to restore monuments on the territory of the Russian Federation in front of the neighboring state, where they were demolished,” said Bulgakov (quote from TASS).

According to the press service of the department, on Sunday Bulgakov opened the restored monument to the T-34 tank in Ivangorod. The decision to erect a monument on the border with Narva, where on August 16 it was removed from the pedestal and sent to the museum, was received by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

According to Bulgakov, the Narva Tank is the only similar monument of the Great Patriotic War in Estonia. The tank was installed in memory of the crossing of the river Narva on July 25-26, 1944 by the Soviet troops. The Deputy Minister called the restoration of the monument a response to the “perfect act of state vandalism by the Estonian government.”

Over the past few months, the authorities of the Baltic countries and Poland have repeatedly announced their intention to demolish monuments dedicated to the heroes of World War II. In August, the dismantling of the monument to Soviet soldiers, the liberators of Latvia and Riga from the Nazi invaders, began in Riga. In early September, the Vilnius authorities announced plans to dismantle the monument to Soviet soldiers at the Antakalnis cemetery. The monument is to be demolished by November 1st.

September 8, Russian President Vladimir Putin declaredthat Russia will never be able to “understand and accept” the demolition of monuments to Soviet soldiers, and such steps that are being taken in European countries cause “heartache”.